Preston Persuaders

TM Mark R. led the end of the year spectacular with a meeting packed with wonderful speeches. TM Durai K. shared with us his favorite book The Greatest Salesman in the World. TM Larry D. taught us that having grit is the passion to moving forward in life. TM Wen K. explained how to make a delectable beef stew. CC Mickey B. shared his experiences and great tips to provide poignant evaluations. CC, CL Allison B. roasted outgoing club president ACB Rick G. for his service in office. Members and guests packed Spoons Cafe and enjoyed great food and camaraderie after the meeting. The next meeting will not be until Monday, January 6, so have spectacular and safe holidays until then!

CC, CL Allison B. led a meeting full of holiday cheer. TM Larry D. gave his icebreaker speech talking about the places he has been and that he is still creating the answer to "Who Am I." ACB Brian T. explained that the way Hollywood portrays sprinklers in the ceiling of buildings is all wrong; they only go off when the temperature rises to a certain degree. TM Wen K. had a lot of holiday songs and questions in store for the table topics participants, and general evaluator CC Mickey B. advised of the importance of preparing a backup speech, whether you are the toastmaster or not, to be ready to seize opportunity.

The toastmaster CC Alex E. brought in an attitude of gratitude for the meeting's theme. The speakers kept it up in their speeches with lessons learned, an awesome adventure, and poignant facts. TM Sofia O. shared a message of taking care of your health and not leaving valuables, even in a locked car. TM Mark R. spoke of exploring the Hall of the White Giant and slipping through Matlock’s Pinch in the Carlsbad Cavern. DTM Jyo P. talked about how among some societies female babies and females in general are treated as unwanted and gave a call to action. The table topics master ACG, ALS Hugh D. gave our guests a chance to answer fun questions and brought out some thanksgiving favorites and funny worst foods, like cranberry sauce and fruitcake.

The general evaluator TM Mike T. brought humor and helpful evaluations to the meeting. ACS, CL Dean E. closed out the meeting with the announcement of the night's winners.

Toastmaster CC Mickey B. brought us back to the "Happy Days" TV series and the realization that happy days are not stuck in the past. Our three speakers gave inspiring speeches. TM Melanie R. started out with a reminder that you never know and it's best not to judge people. TM Stephanie M. followed up with a powerpoint presentation explaining the importance of taking care of our veterans. CC, CL Allison B. gave an eloquent PresTony award presentation as a specialty speech. Table topics master ACB Shiny W. kept the happy days theme going with questions about what color and what things made people happy. General evaluator CC Alex E. reminded the club of the importance of keeping evaluations positive and receiving feedback well.

Congratulations to Jyo P., DTM, for winning first place at the District 50 evaluation contest last Friday! Mike T., TM, led the meeting as a first-time toastmaster of the day with the local theme of Dallas. We heard two great speeches from Mickey B., CC, and Brian T., ACB. Mickey talked about similarities with his father and lessons learned. Brian talked about three major differences with traveling to Europe, rather than traveling within the states. Ed M., ACS, ALB, asked table topics participants about their favorite Dallas whereabouts, leading to some fun Dallas facts.

Lisa S., CC, led the evaluators to provide constructive feedback to the speakers. At the end of the meeting, the nominations committee chair, Sarah W., CC, ALB, presented the slate of officers for January to June 2014.  The club voted to accept the following slate of officers!

Members arrived early and in costume and disguise for the Halloween through the Ages themed meeting. Jyo shared the 2000-year-old tradition of celebrating All Hallow's Eve. TM Sofia O. shared her first speech with the club about coming from Colombia to OU to study. TM Wen K. spoke of the benefits of quitting smoking from improving your health to not being told "you stink." TM Melanie R. related her experience with a plumbing project gone awry as her mommy's little helper. CC Lisa S. detailed a motivation model and spoke of the importance of emotional IQ.

The table topics featured tricks and treats with some superstitious questions from ACB, CL Rick G. The evaluators gave helpful evaluations, and in turn, found themselves evaluated by the general evaluator ACS, ALS Hugh D. At the end of the meeting, we voted in a new member, Larry D. Welcome to the club!

Toastmaster Melanie R. led an inspiring meeting about the intrinsic value of members and toastmasters. We heard three speeches over a range of topics. Toastmaster Janak P. spoke about his experiences at the state fair including: seeing the brand new Corvette Stingray, eating fried butter and nutella, and watching an ostrich race crash. Toastmaster Mark R. shared the value of recording your speeches and watching them later to evaluate or share with family and friends. Competent communicator Alex E. shared a folktale from Ireland with three advices including honesty is the best policy.

The table topics section hosted by toastmaster Susan B. coincidentally brought out great answers about the intrinsic value of certain people and which values were most important. As always, we received great feedback from our evaluators about using the stage and easing away from the podium. Our general evaluator, competent communicator, competent leader, Allison B. reminded us that we can request to be buzzed for "ahs" during speeches, if we want to. The night closed out with feedback from our guest and ribbons awarded to the best of the night.

We voted in two wonderful new members. Welcome to Sofia and Durai! The meeting, led by first-time toastmaster Stephanie, was fabulous as the theme suggested. Max gave a speech about his 40 years in Toastmasters from the Successful Club Series. Rick talked about a proposed street user fee to recoup expensive maintenance costs for the city. Jyo taught us how step by step, we can reach our goals and achieve the competent leadership educational award and beyond. Table topics served a gallimaufry of questions from fall favorites to how to recover from a fall in life. The evening rounded out with evaluations that covered sharing more personal stories with the audience and making gestures more meaningful among other helpful suggestions. Be sure to confirm your role

The toastmaster of the evening Mark brought in a stack of board games and plenty of energy. The speakers kept up the energy with three great speeches. Patrick gave his tenth inspirational speech, which earned him the Competent Communicator educational award. Suguna discussed her first out-of-county vacation experience when she lost her son and found him safe after a search. Brian explained one of the original bio fuels, trees, which can be chipped up, then used to generate electricity to power your toaster.

Lisa explored peoples' experiences growing up playing games with table topics questions. After, the evaluators provided positive feedback to the speakers, and club members gave a brief round robin evaluation of each speaker.

We had a full evening Monday night with four speeches. Stephanie educated us about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Max discussed the roots of terrorism and the division of countries. Hugh previewed his upcoming one-hour speech about success. The final speech was by Shiny about her favorite tale of the tortoise and the hare.